If you like comics (and hopefully read at least one), throw in your 2.
Movies: 1135
Comments: 67725
Members: 718
Online: 0 Guests: 222
I think I found it--or, at least, I think I found the one I remember. It was a comment made in a Talkback on AICN:
mocking buddha wrote:
I also really like where Natalie Portman tells James Franco she truly deeply loves him, cause her acting sure wasn't letting me know that. And I was like, "Ooooh, okay, now it makes some sense... wait... did she just jump on that big rhino thing and give Annie a quick kiss before trying to dodge laser fire? Hurm. When the drains finally scab over, the Jedi will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the Padawans and Knights will look up and shout, 'Save us!' and I'll look down and whisper, 'Clones.'"
On second thought, that was posted in 2008. There's a pretty good chance that person was aping an earlier aping of Rorschach quote.
You've been riding that "prequels suck" hobby horse for so long I'm surprised you're not saddle sore by now.
Dalty's zillions of servants get paid to get saddle sore for him. They get paid well.
Straczynski's pretty weak argument for continuing Watchmen despite Moore's wish that it be left alone (on his "Fans of J. Michael Straczynski" Facebook page [I already pointed out that he calls himself "Fans of J. Michael Straczynski" on Facebook, right? I did? Good]) is that Straczynski has worked with characters created by other authors. He uses the example of the public domain characters Moore uses in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to try to make his point. In his Facebook justification, he quotes himself from an earlier interview (of fucking course he quotes himself):
"Alan has spent most of the last decade writing some very, very good stories about characters created by other writers, including Alice (from Wonderland), Dorothy (from Oz), Wendy (from Peter Pan), as well as Captain Nemo, the Invisible Man, Jekyll and Hyde and Professor Moriarty. I think one loses a little of the moral high ground to say, “I can write characters created by Jules Verne, HG Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle and Frank Baum, but it’s wrong for anyone else to write my characters."
Putting aside that these are considered something like public domain characters (I'm guessing; I'm not sure to what degree British public domain law disagrees with American public domain law), Moore isn't writing stories written by living authors who have actively spent the last quarter decade expressing both his desire that the characters not be involved in new stories and disatisfaction at the legal machinations that have kept him from being able to keep this from happening. Moore claims he was given the impression that the rights would revert to him and Gibbons if DC did nothing with the characters after a year's time.
It's also not as if Moore's work with these older characters is meant to be understood as a direct continuation. I think everyone thinks of them as an amusing, non-canonical "What If?" sort of thing.
Straczynski also tries to create an "apples to apples" scenario with Babylon 5, saying that 1.) he'd be, like, totally cool with other creators working with his characters, and 2.) if Warner Bros., who owned the characters, worked unsuccessfully for twenty-five years to get him to come around to the idea of new stories being done by other creators, he would have "zero right to complain about" them going ahead against his wishes. Is Moore being prissy and pissy? Sure. I feel like he has more than zero right to do so, though. He may have no legal grounds to claim ownership, but he has person grounds to express his dissatisfaction.
First of all, I feel people have a right to complain regardless of whether or not their complaints hold waer. Secondly, the scenario clearly isn't "apples to apples." I'm pretty sure Moore would disagree with the pat way Straczynski describes how things went down legally between Moore and DC. And DC continues to fuck with him. When DC acquired Wildstorm, that meant they also acquired America's Best Comics. One of Moore's conditions when signing with America's Best was that they would not be intervening. Now that DC owns them, the deal's off.
On a personal note, I don't have a problem with the idea of a creator's character becoming property of the people. Just because I don't doesn't mean the creator doesn't, though. I give allowances for parody, but not for straightforward continuation against a writer's will. As far as my own characters go, I don't have a problem with people using them. Not that I own any characters worth anything. I don't care what other people do with my characters. Maybe I would be of a different mind in a situation where someone is making a lot of money off characters of mine while I'm making none. I don't know. I'll tell you when it happens, though I doubt it will happen.
I don't hold it against other creators for wanting to play in Moore's sandbox. It's a juicy carrot to dangle. At the same time, though, I wish there were some way to better communicate to those unfamiliar with the behind-the-scenes stuff that this is happening against Moore's wishes. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's disrespectful fanfic with blood on its hands, but I'd personally prefer it if there were some sort of disclaimer at the beginning of each issue. (Though I'm sure the argument could be made that most of the people buying the comics will be at least a little familiar with the behind-the-scenes stuff.)
Speaking of parody, it may be time that Horso invaded the Babylon 5 universe.
Most of the comments on Straczynki's "Fans of Straczynki" post lick his balls, talk about how great a read it is, how it puts everything into perspective, and treat his "Fuck Moore! We're doing it anyway!" points as though they are extremely well thought out and inarguable.
I understand that they're fans and that some degree of hero worship is to be expected, but damn!
To Straczynski's credit, he responds respectfully to those who disagree with him.
It would lend credibility to the prequel if Gaiman and Morrison were involved. They're not, though. And why aren't they involved? Probably because they have too much respect for Moore and what he accomplished.
While I think Cooke's Minutemen will probably wind up being pretty cool, I'm a little disappointed that he's doing it.
I think that you should post on his Fan Of J Michael Whateverhisnameis site. You should call yourself Fan of Ol Beau Watkins.
It would be amaze-balls.
I posted as plain ol' Beau Watkins. I wrote:
Mr. Straczynski:
Regarding you looking back through comics you've written for ways to improve your writing, I have one request. Could you tone down that thing you do where you have a character say a line and then repeat that line (or variations on it) for multiple panels? I can provide you with a number of examples of your having done this, if you'd like.
I know you're doing it for its perceived dramatic weight, but you've done it so many times in the past that it has begun to come across--to me, at least--as self-parodying shtick.
You may have already addressed this in your more recent writing. I haven't had the opportunity to read much of what you've written in the last handful of years.
I will go see Chronicle and it will be the greatest thing I've ever seen, whether it is or not.
So 6 of the new DC comics are being cancelled with issue #8 (none that I read), and replaced by 6 other titles, including Batman Incorporated, Dial H (reboot of Dial H for HERO), JSA (only it's called Earth 2), and some others. I would consider checking out both Dial H and Earth 2.
I'm about through issue #3 of the DC titles I'm currently buying. So far none of them actually seem like a reboot as they've all carried forward history from the old DC. The one exception is Justice League, as it's set 5 years ago and nobody knows each other, giving Geoff Johns and Jim Lee the creative opportunity to introduce some of the most hacky dialogue I've ever read.
So I saw they had started an X-Men vs Avengers title, which is apparently a big deal. However I saw that Romita Jr. is doing the art, so I have no interest. How does that guy keep getting the big event projects???
His art is shit!
So this month I passed on Justice League and Batgirl. Batgirl had been on the cusp for awhile, and I just decided not to pick it up. I hadn't been too impressed with Jim Lee's art in JL (and definitely been underwhelmed by the dialogue), but this week's had some (assuming) guest artist(s), and the art really suffered. Also, I've been picking up Nightwing and I just recently read an issue that just had the worst art. It was kind of a filler issue with Batgirl making a guest appearance. They touched on the ongoing story just enough that it was still present, but I was not happy I'd bought the ish. I ALWAYS check the art, even if it's an ongoing series which I'm picking up, so I don't know how I bought this one. That said, the regular art is really good, except people's expressions often seem completely off from the dialogue, and usually gets a chuckle out of me.
Trying to decide if I want to get into this series....
http://geekout.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/24/beloved-bounty-hunter-boba-fett-...
They're relaunching Alan Scott as gay. Seems like a dumb bit of stunt casting. DC and Marvel are constantly retooling their old characters in ways they think are daring and subversive to make headlines. I don't see why they don't just create new characters. I understand that it's lopsided-looking to have a world full of superheroes who are mostly only straight, white, and male, but maybe you could show a little creativity and create some characters from scratch.
I'm not one of these guys who gets mad when a character is "fucked with." I'm not married to Superman being straight and white. I won't think he's "ruined" if they change that. I just think it's blatantly gimmicky and dumb.
He was gay in the very first comic he ever appeared in. Bullets and knives couldn't touch him, but he got all vulnerable when a guy came at him with wood.
The Swollen Goi...
Location:
Posts: 14343
Posted: 12 years 8 weeks ago
I remember that AotC comment. I can't remember how it started out, but it ended with "and I'll look down and whisper 'Clones.'"